Copyright on the Internet.

Target Marketing, June, 1999 by Winston, Jay

On October 28, 1998, the President signed an amendment to the copyright law entitled the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which was designed to address some of the problems of digital media, particularly on the Internet. In addition, the act enabled Congress to ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization treaties.

One of the important side issues was an attempt to change the Supreme Court decision that held that the telephone directory white pages are not original enough to merit copyright protection (Feist Publishing Inc. vs. World Telephone Service Co.). The court rejected "the sweat of the brow" and "industrious collection theories." The copyright issue on the Internet has been presenting problems for the courts for some time. Judges seem...

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